


Even Blueberries Rot

by SeashellWriter



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underswap, Angst, Childhood Trauma, Dark, Depression, Determination (Undertale), Flashbacks, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Monster Dust (Undertale), Papyrus Needs A Hug, Poor Sans, Resets, Sans Needs A Hug, Sans Remembers Resets, Underswap Papyrus, Underswap Sans, Undertale Genocide Route, Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 07:12:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12859455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeashellWriter/pseuds/SeashellWriter
Summary: Happy? He's far from happy.Naïve? He knows a lot more than you think.Magnificent? Does standing by and watching the people you love get hurt, count as being magnificent?He may look the part, but it's not what he truly feels. Beneath that outer image of his lies anxiety and fear. He's scared that everyone's memories will be stripped away, afraid of repeating the past over and over again because of that small temmie monster. Despite it being a month since the last time shift, he can’t let go, he’s too afraid to let go.When a human falls into the underground with DETERMINATION to be reckoned with, Sans isn't sure if he can take it anymore.He's always had a firm belief that everyone has good in them, no matter how bad their choices are, but perhaps that's not the case.Not with the human at least.





	Even Blueberries Rot

It's warm in his and his brother's house, the bitter cold outside coating the windows in a thin sheet of ic _e_. Wind blows against the small home harshly, making the house creak and shake. The cozy atmosphere inside makes Sans feel more at ease as he shifts through the kitchen. The tiny, cramped kitchen is soon filled with noise, as clanking sounds of pots and pans being moved around against each other can be heard from within. The lighting is dim, but comforting at the same time, even though Sans has to squint his eye sockets in an effort to see, as he rummages through one of the cabinets, trying to find the pot that he usually uses to cook taco meat in. His mind is far away from the task however, no matter how hard he's trying to concentrate, trying to feel as happy as he's _supposed_ to be feeling right now. His soul curls in anxiety however, telling him that everything is not okay despite trying to ignore the feeling. He finally spots the large pot that he is looking for, and realizes that he scanned right over it multiple times. He ~~tells himself~~ chalks it up as to just being tired from Alphys’s training lessons.  

As he turns around to put the pot onto the stove, he catches sight of the calendar hanging up on the fridge, pinned up by colorful magnets. His eye lights dim slightly upon seeing it, reminding him that it's been over a month since the last RESET was made. He can’t help but acknowledge his worries now. Would one happen again? Would Tem RESET again? After this long? No... No, Tem wouldn't do that… Would he? He hasn’t shown up at all within this month, maybe he’s finally decided to stop? He hopes that’s the case, he didn’t know if he could handle another RESET. Sans has made a lot of progress within this short span of time, and even with the constant fear of another time shift happening again hanging over his head, he’s been content… Content with finally moving forward, content with not having that heart wrenching feeling of déjà vu overtake him every morning, content with not getting new, blurred memories of past timelines, content with not having everyone's memories wiped clean suddenly. To have that all taken away after a month is terrifying to say the least, thinking about it sends chills up his spine. His bones rattle softly as his gloved hands loosen their hold on the handles of the pot- 

BANG! 

Sans jumps, startled out of his thoughts by the sudden loud noise. He looks down at the pot that is currently rolling slightly in place on the golden tiled floor, realizing that he dropped it.  

“everything ok in there, bro?” He hears his younger brother, Papyrus, ask from the living room. 

“Yes, I am f-fine, papy!” He says, forcing that practiced, carefree tone into his voice, “This pot just slipped out of my hands!” 

"i guess you got yourself into a _slippery_ situation back there, hu?" Papyrus asks. He can practically hear his brother grinning. 

"PAPYRUS!" Sans groans, secretly feeling relieved that Papyrus wasn't concerned. 

He can hear the taller skeleton snicker, despite the dramatic noise coming from the TV. He wonders how many times he’s heard that pun before. Did he hear it before in a different timeline? 

 _'Forget about the time shifts!'_  

 He shakes his head, picking the pot up off the floor, and this time managing to put it onto the stove. Sans sighs through his nasal cavity, mind wandering again as he turns one of the burners on.  

 _'I have to stay brave!_ _'_ He thinks to himself, trying to keep himself motivated. 

He loudly walks over to the fridge, socked feet hitting the floor in noisy thumps, and pulls open the freezer door, his thoughts suddenly shifting towards the instigator of the RESETs. 

 _'_ _Tem_ _... Perhaps he's changed! Perhaps he's finally listened to me! T-There's good in everyone after all, which means, there's good in him. I knew I could still believe in him.'_  

His fake, bubbly grin starts turning into a more genuine one when he thinks this. Tem maybe has changed for the better, even if he's done terrible things to him, his brother, and other monsters without any sympathy. Sans has been trying for so long to get the little Temmie monster to stop the constant RESETs, to stop hurting and manipulating everyone in his path, but Tem always brushed him off, calling him an idiot for being so naïve. Though, when Tem learned that Sans could remember the time jumps, even if his memories of then were almost always foggy, it peaked his interest in him, and unfortunately... in Papyrus as well. 

Some memories are just not obscured completely. 

 

 _"YOU IDIOT! In this world, it's KILLED or be KILLED! You're really naïve if you believe I'd EVER change."_  

 _"N-No stop! Please let him go! Y-You can still do the right thing!" Sans cries out desperately, tears rolling down his cheek bones._  

 _"You just don't get it do you?" An ugly grin spreads over the small monster's face then, "I'll just have to make you understand then."_  

 _Papyrus's arm is then bent backwards at an impossible angle... A sickening cracking sound coming from the bone as he lets out a pained scream-_  

 

He throws a batch of frozen beef into the large pot roughly, eye lights out and grin gone. He trembles softly as he forces himself to not think about the faded memory. 

"I-It d-didn't happen..." He whispers to himself quietly, sounding distressed. 

He takes in a shaky breath. 

"I-It didn't happen." He repeats, sounding surer this time. 

He takes in another deep breath, quelling some of the panic rising in his ribs. 

"It didn't happen." He says with finality. 

He then straightens his posture, remembering instantly that Papyrus could walk in at any moment and catch him not looking like his normal, cheery self. He forces the bright grin back into place, light blue eye lights reappearing in his eye sockets. He quickly finishes up making the tacos and then sets them out onto the dining table. Sans looks at the set table, hands on his hip bones as he checks over his work. He then nods approvingly to himself, feeling satisfied. 

"PAPYRUS! DINNER IS READY!" He calls out, before sitting himself at the table. 

"coming, bro," He hears Papyrus drawl out and the click of the tv being shut off. 

His brother comes into the kitchen then, hands stuffed in his hoodie's pockets, and he offers Sans a friendly grin before shuffling over to the table to sit at it. Sans smiles back brightly, feeling happiness well up in his soul and replace the fear that he was feeling moments ago. If there was one monster in the whole underground that could cheer him up instantly, it was Papyrus. His brother plops down onto the chair across from him, slouching in his seat before inspecting the food in front of him. 

"it looks good, sans," Papyrus says, complimenting the shorter skeleton's creation. 

Sans beams at that, puffing his chest out proudly as he says, "Why thank you brother!" 

The taller skeleton chuckles fondly, before picking up the crispy taco, and taking a small bite from it. Sans watches him closely, worrying that his brother may not like it. However, Papyrus's face lights up and he begins munching away. 

"tastes-" Papyrus says in between bites "good too." Sans feels relieved and ecstatic at that. 

Another victory for the magnificent Sans!  

The shorter skeleton begins digging into his own taco as well then, before chattering away to Papyrus in an excited, boisterous manner. Papyrus mostly watches him with an amused expression, occasionally nodding and saying "that's cool," to acknowledge that he is listening. Throughout their conversation however, Sans can't help but feel bothered by the dead look dulling Papyrus's eye sockets. He feels a pang of sadness, finding himself missing the life that used to grace his features. It was so long ago... When his brother was truly happy. He wishes he could help Papyrus somehow, but the taller skeleton never lets him in. 

 _'Like I'm one to talk, I don't tell him about the RESETs. But it's for a good reason!'_ He thinks, feeling a like a hypocrite.  

Papyrus picks up on Sans's troubled expression, also noticing that his older brother is stumbling over his words slightly, voice quieter than before. 

"is something wrong, sans?" The taller skeleton asks suddenly, but his tone remains carefree. 

He often forgets how perceptive Papyrus can be. He can only berate himself for letting his mask slip. 

“Huh? N-No!” Sans says quickly, a nervous edge to his voice “I am fine, Papy! Why do you ask?” 

He forces himself to look Papyrus right in the eye sockets as he says this, trying to put on an confused expression. His brother's eyes narrow slightly, though the easy-going grin spread across his face stays. 

“it's just... you seem a little _rattled,_ heh."  

"I am honestly fine, brother! I am just... Tired from my training with Alphys," Sans says, the pun going right over his head despite it being so obvious. 

Papyrus's grin wavers slightly, but be drops the subject, saying "alright, whatever ya say, bro." 

Sans continues on the mostly one-sided conversation then, secretly feeling relieved that Papyrus didn't push the subject further. Once they finish up dinner, Sans washes the dishes, and once he's done, he heads into the living room. It's dark, the only source of light coming from the tv that's playing reruns of Napstabot's show. The scarce light is shining on Papyrus, who is sprawled out across the couch, fast asleep. Sans sighs, shaking his head, before looking over at the soft blanket that's folded neatly over the right arm of the couch. He picks it up with his magic, a light blue glow surrounding it. Sans's left eye glares a blueish yellow as the blanket lifts up into the air, unraveling, before it lands softly onto his brother. The light surrounding the blanket disappears, right when Sans's eye lights return to normal. 

He smiles in satisfaction, before murmuring out quietly "Goodnight, brother." 

 A yawn escapes the short skeleton then, before he shuts off the tv, rendering the room into complete darkness. He then heads upstairs, making sure to go over that one creaky step, not wanting to wake Papyrus. Once he is in his room, he begins his nightly routine, tiredly brushing his teeth, and slowly changing out of his battle suit and into his bone themed pajamas, leaving his blue bandana, that's tied around his neck, on. 

He slips into the covers of his navy blue racecar bed once he's finished, his eye sockets slipping closed. He doesn't stay still however, tossing and turning around in his bed for a few minutes. The thought about how horrible it'd be if he awoke in the past again not leaving his mind.  

… 

 He's nothing but a mere lab rat to his mother. 

 _"NO!!! PLEASE NOT MY EYE!!! MOM NO!!!"_  

He is screaming, begging for the hooded monster to stop, to reconsider, as he struggles against the bonds that press him down onto the large, metal table. 

"This will only take a minute, Sans. I suggest you hold still." 

He sniffles pathetically as bright, blue liquid magic seeps out of his eye sockets, rolling down his cheek bones. 

"P-Please... Don't do this.... PLEASE!!!" 

"Sans, if you don't hold still, I'll have no choice but to get Papyrus in here. You wouldn't want that. _Would you?_ " 

He freezes upon hearing his little brother's name, he can’t allow that to happen. He can't let Papyrus get hurt. He'd have to have no heart to do that. He lets out a heavy breath, gathering up his nerves, before he obediently stares up at the large laser gun that is pointing directly at his right eye. He tries not to think about it, it'll only hurt for a minute he tells himself.  

 _"Good boy."_  

A beam of light shoots into his eye socket, a blinding white bursting across his vision. The pain is unbearable, his eye socket feels like it's being scorched through the bone, is it melting? He can hear screams of agony, they're high pitched, wailing screams. It takes him a moment to realize that those are his own screams. Suddenly, it's as if he's flipping through images in a camera. He sees gray speckles on powdery snow, a human in a green sweater, a knife, an orange hoodie with a slash through it, and endless **_dust. It's everywhere._** The dust surrounds him, it covers him from head to toe. It's in his eye sockets, in the gaps of his hands, in his mouth. It slowly suffocates him, the remains of monsters chocking him, making him gag and cough. 

Is his brother's dust here? 

Is he breathing in his brother's dust?  

He screams.  

… 

Sans abruptly sits up in his bed, terrified scream escaping him as his phalanges come up to squeeze lightly around his cervical vertebrae. His eye sockets are now wide open, and his left eye light is burning a yellowish blue, lighting up the room dimly in a light blue hue. His breaths come out choked and fast, and he realizes after a moment that he's in a bed. His... own racecar bed. His quickly looks around the room, taking in his own bedroom, and not seeing a single speck of dust in sight. His bedroom door suddenly swings open and he jumps, snapping his head around to see... Papyrus. It's just... Papyrus. His brother's right eye light is gleaming a bright orange color, finger tips charged with magic. When he sees Sans unharmed, his eye sockets widen, before his eye lights return to their normal, small, white pinpricks.  

"sans? are you ok?" Papyrus asks, staring at him with a concerned expression. 

"O-Oh.... H-Hey Papy..." Sans says, wincing at how his voice cracks, "I-I just had a b-bad dream, t-that's all. I-I'm... o-ok." 

He can't keep his voice steady, try as he might, and he can't help but sniffle loudly at remembering that sickening dust. T-That dust... His brother's sweat shirt with a stab mark through it...  

 _'N-No! Don't cry... Not now! Y-You can't worry Papyrus!'_   He thinks, scolding himself, but as much as he tries to hold in the tears, they start trickling down his face. 

He looks away quickly, wiping at his eye sockets with his pajama sleeves in a weak attempt to hide how distraught he is. He jumps slightly when he suddenly feels long arms wrap around him, before he relaxes into the embrace.  

"shhh, it's ok Sans," Papyrus says softly before rubbing soothing circles into his brother's spine. 

Sans clutches onto him, shaking like a leaf, as he finally cries into his brother's tank top. The sobs just pour out of him, as the images of dust flicker through his head. T-That human in his dream... There was something so chilling about the expression on their face. That blank look they gave him, a single emotion blazing in their dull, brownish red eyes. Were they responsible for all of that dust? He has a suspicion that they were, and a nagging feeling that his dream means something very important. Uneasiness wraps around his soul, why does his dream feel important? 

"P-Papy?" He stutters out softly against his brother, managing to stop sobbing "Can y-you... Stay here tonight?" 

 _'What if the nightmare comes true? I can't leave Papyrus's side,'_ He thinks fearfully. 

"of course, bro," Papyrus replies easily, before pulling away from Sans slowly to get a look at his face. 

Bright blue tears are still flowing out of his eye sockets, but at least the panic induced magic in his left eye has dissipated. Sans has to look away from the taller skeleton out of embarrassment. He hates crying in front of other monsters, it's always so humiliating in a way. It just makes him look even more childish.  

"do... ya wanna talk about your nightmare? it might help," Papyrus offers, continuing the comforting spine rubs. 

Should he tell his brother? No, is his immediate thought. He doesn't want to burden Papyrus with his nightmares, his problems, or anything for that matter. Papyrus is already dealing with enough as it is. He doesn’t deserve that, Sans can worry about himself. No matter how childish he may seem to be, he’s the older brother, and as an older brother, it's his duty to protect his younger sibling. 

"N-No... But, I am fine!" He reassures, plastering a grin onto his face as he wipes his tears away. 

At seeing Papyrus's unconvinced frown, he continues on saying "R-Really! It is... Just a silly dream. Nothing can scare the magnificent Sans for too long! Mwehehehe!" 

 _'Please... Believe me.'_  

Papyrus studies Sans's face for a moment, eye lights glaring down intensely at him, as if he is trying to make the other skeleton crack and tell him the truth. The shorter skeleton begins to fidget nervously under his intense gaze, grin wavering slightly. After a tense moment, Papyrus finally lets out a sigh. 

"alright, bro. whatever you say," He relents reluctantly, “just know that i’m always here for ya.” 

"I know, Papy," Sans says, his tone sounding strained. 

He feels a mixture of relief and guilt seep into his bones. He feels bad for lying to Papyrus like this, but he can't afford to tell his brother about his dream. He doesn't know why that particular nightmare is disturbing him so much, it's just giving him a really bad vibe with its feeling of importance. Urgh! What was he, a baby bones now? It's just a dream! Just a very disturbing dream... There's nothing more to it. 

"sooo, how about scooting over, bro? you're taking a _skele-ton_ of room up on the bed," His younger brother says playfully, interrupting his thoughts. 

"Oh sorr- Wait! Papyrus! It's too late for puns!" Sans says exasperated, before making room for the other skeleton. 

At least the room doesn't feel so... stiff anymore. 

Papyrus simply chuckles before plopping down beside the shorter skeleton, and joining him under the covers. Sans feels immediately safer because of his sibling's presence, and feels a comforting warmth bubble up in his soul. 

"Hey... Papy? Thanks for staying with me," He can't help but say, gratitude seeping into his voice. 

"s'no problem, bro," His brother murmurs out before he lets out a yawn. 

A comforting silence spreads out between them as Sans moves around to get comfortable under the heavy blankets. He shuts his eye sockets, listening to the cave winds outside rustling against their home. The image of that nightmarish human suddenly pops up in his mind, making his eye sockets open. He can't give into the hands of sleep just yet. 

"Papyrus?" He murmurs out, unusually quiet. 

"hm?" The skeleton in question hums in response, eye sockets closed. 

"Do... You think a human will come by one day?" He doesn't even know why he's asking. 

"'course, bro. you'll get into the royal guard, don't worry... you're the coolest monster i know after all," Papyrus responds, his voice a little gruffer from being half asleep, but Sans can still hear the sincerity in his tone. 

Even if Papyrus has mistaken Sans's question as one of self-doubt, Sans can't help but feel flattered by his younger brother's words. 

"R-Really?" Sans asks, unable to keep the disbelief out of his voice. 

"of course. I-" A yawn "believe in you, Sans." 

 A genuine smile slips onto Sans's face as his eye sockets slip shut, feeling oddly content now.

"Thank you, brother. I love you," The shorter skeleton says, voice fainter as he finally drifts off to sleep. 

"love ya too, bro." 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading the first chapter of this :D
> 
> I hope it was alright. I'm a bit new to posting my works online, so please don't be too harsh lol, but constructive criticism is always welcomed!
> 
> Anyways, I hope you stay for the upcoming chapters, because this is only the beginning >:3


End file.
